For BETH, who commented on a post of mine (which I now can’t find) about blocking people:
Beth, you click on their name, which takes you to their Substack info. Then you click on the three gray dots in the top right corner. That drop-down menu ought to include “block.”
But I’m doing all this on my iPhone, and the iOS Substack interface is different from the desktop, so your mileage may vary.
Mona once again nails the feeling shared by my viscera when listening to Vivek. He is busily playing ardent fascist. He knows better. As a Harvard biology major, how could he not know the science behind climate change. He reminds me of Dicken’s Uriah Heep--just icky. And can he be that stupid about the long-term probable outcomes of his foreign policy statements? Does he not know Poland and Lithuania have closed half their border crossings in fear of what may come next from Russia or Belarus? Putin has been clear that he plans to push into Europe to retake the Soviet states. How much will that war cost us?
I was disappointed in just about everybody. Ada did an honest job. Haley did surprisingly well (but would Republicans elect a woman?).
Charlie, I don’t feel dead inside, I just feel such a sense of disappointment and fear.
Tropical Storm Hilary on Sunday knocked out my landline and internet until now. Did I miss anything important? BTW, caught Tim's act on MSNBC last night - I wish they'd give him an hour!
“Six of the eight debaters on Wednesday raised their hands when asked whether they would support Trump as the nominee even if he had been convicted of a crime - North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Ramaswamy and U.S. Senator Tim Scott.”*****
.
.
Seemed to me that seven – not six – of them raised their hands. Christie walked it back, but he initially was with the other six. I interpreted him as having in the moment worried that a firm "no" would violate the RNC pledge requirement and disqualify him from future debates.
*****Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the Trump ally-turned-enemy, appeared to raise his hand, too, in a halfhearted way, before wagging a finger; he later said he wasn’t answering the question but was simply seeking recognition to explain why he wouldn’t support a convicted Mr. Trump. Another Trump critic, Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, kept his hands locked at his sides.*****
Prigozhin was dead man walking. It was the spectacular manner in which he was killed that surprised me. In the past a little poison, stairways in tall buildings, windows that just can't contain humans or car accidents were the norm. Putin was determined to make a statement. My guess is it has worked for the moment, but wait a couple of months and see if Putin's swagger is still there.
The so-called debate was more a farce than anything else. Vivek really is a ridiculous person promoting fossil fuels after a summer of floods and wildfires due to???? Fossil fuel use destroys the planet. They all seem to want the MAGA voters and seem willing to cater to them up to certain points.
Last night was all sound and very little common sense.
Haley had a good point about the GOP doing it to us vis-a-vis debt. However, she never mentioned the real cause, i.e. the tax cuts for the rich. Those were not necessary whereas Covid spending was.
"Moreover, things like rocket artillery systems and demining vehicles wouldn’t help border security."
But the Base WANT rocket artillery systems at the border because they want to see, on the nightly news, migrants being shot, blown up, drowned, and generally mutilated and murdered by our Loyal Patriotic Troops.
The cruelty is the point. That's why they're cheering the razor wire on the Rio Grande and the little saws on the buoys, and it doesn't bother them a bit that a pregnant migrant got caught in the razor wire and miscarried in front of them.
I have never been as angry at a candidate as I am at Vivek. He’s what you say he is. Every time I see someone on Facebook talking him up, I want to vomit. He’s just the latest con man selling snake oil to the under educated tea party voters and populist anti government types. He should run in the Democratic Primary with RFK Jr. I’m glad that Haley — the only woman and the only other Asian American on the stage — was the one who took him down.
Wealthy tech-bros posing as populists are as bad as wealthy real estate moguls (who actually became most successful as reality TV stars and sellers of their brand) pretending to be the champion of average Americans against "elites."
I tried to watch. I really did. It is what responsible civic minded citizens should do. I couldn’t make it past the 3 minute mark. Then again, I don’t watch reruns of 2017 sun belt conference volleyball games at midnight on channel 246. Similar in importance.
For me, assholes with racist tendencies may be more significantly differentiated from racists with asshole tendencies are for you, Pre-Trump Republicans had their problems, but G W Bush and D J Trump are not the same political species, maybe not even the same genus.
Christie may be a bridge between pre and post, but Hutchison is purely pre, and Ramaswamy decidedly post.
For BETH, who commented on a post of mine (which I now can’t find) about blocking people:
Beth, you click on their name, which takes you to their Substack info. Then you click on the three gray dots in the top right corner. That drop-down menu ought to include “block.”
But I’m doing all this on my iPhone, and the iOS Substack interface is different from the desktop, so your mileage may vary.
It was kind of fun watching Vivek get slapped around a bit last night even though it won't change anything.
Mona once again nails the feeling shared by my viscera when listening to Vivek. He is busily playing ardent fascist. He knows better. As a Harvard biology major, how could he not know the science behind climate change. He reminds me of Dicken’s Uriah Heep--just icky. And can he be that stupid about the long-term probable outcomes of his foreign policy statements? Does he not know Poland and Lithuania have closed half their border crossings in fear of what may come next from Russia or Belarus? Putin has been clear that he plans to push into Europe to retake the Soviet states. How much will that war cost us?
I was disappointed in just about everybody. Ada did an honest job. Haley did surprisingly well (but would Republicans elect a woman?).
Charlie, I don’t feel dead inside, I just feel such a sense of disappointment and fear.
Tropical Storm Hilary on Sunday knocked out my landline and internet until now. Did I miss anything important? BTW, caught Tim's act on MSNBC last night - I wish they'd give him an hour!
I could help but think when Christie was booed for saying Trump’s behavior was beneath the presidency, the people were saying, “Give us Barrabas.”
Brilliant single-sentence summation by the New Yorker: "The Presidential candidates no longer seemed so sure that they knew what their voters wanted them to say." At https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-chaotic-display-of-conservatism-at-the-first-republican-debate
Charlie quoted Reuters:
*****The most pathetic moment
“Six of the eight debaters on Wednesday raised their hands when asked whether they would support Trump as the nominee even if he had been convicted of a crime - North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, DeSantis, Haley, Pence, Ramaswamy and U.S. Senator Tim Scott.”*****
.
.
Seemed to me that seven – not six – of them raised their hands. Christie walked it back, but he initially was with the other six. I interpreted him as having in the moment worried that a firm "no" would violate the RNC pledge requirement and disqualify him from future debates.
From the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/us/politics/trump-convicted-republican-debate-hands.html
*****Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the Trump ally-turned-enemy, appeared to raise his hand, too, in a halfhearted way, before wagging a finger; he later said he wasn’t answering the question but was simply seeking recognition to explain why he wouldn’t support a convicted Mr. Trump. Another Trump critic, Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, kept his hands locked at his sides.*****
Prigozhin was dead man walking. It was the spectacular manner in which he was killed that surprised me. In the past a little poison, stairways in tall buildings, windows that just can't contain humans or car accidents were the norm. Putin was determined to make a statement. My guess is it has worked for the moment, but wait a couple of months and see if Putin's swagger is still there.
The so-called debate was more a farce than anything else. Vivek really is a ridiculous person promoting fossil fuels after a summer of floods and wildfires due to???? Fossil fuel use destroys the planet. They all seem to want the MAGA voters and seem willing to cater to them up to certain points.
Last night was all sound and very little common sense.
Is there a better poster child for the brain-pretzeled GOP now than Mike Pence?
He puffed his chest out and proclaimed his heroic actions that saved our country from the man that he would vote for if he's the GOP nominee??????
Haley had a good point about the GOP doing it to us vis-a-vis debt. However, she never mentioned the real cause, i.e. the tax cuts for the rich. Those were not necessary whereas Covid spending was.
"Moreover, things like rocket artillery systems and demining vehicles wouldn’t help border security."
But the Base WANT rocket artillery systems at the border because they want to see, on the nightly news, migrants being shot, blown up, drowned, and generally mutilated and murdered by our Loyal Patriotic Troops.
The cruelty is the point. That's why they're cheering the razor wire on the Rio Grande and the little saws on the buoys, and it doesn't bother them a bit that a pregnant migrant got caught in the razor wire and miscarried in front of them.
https://apnews.com/article/texas-border-razor-wire-fainting-7aa811baf2708b89a0316804c3f2e35e
They truly are monsters. Cruelty is their only point.
If that's the best Chris Christie can do, I want my $1 back.
I have never been as angry at a candidate as I am at Vivek. He’s what you say he is. Every time I see someone on Facebook talking him up, I want to vomit. He’s just the latest con man selling snake oil to the under educated tea party voters and populist anti government types. He should run in the Democratic Primary with RFK Jr. I’m glad that Haley — the only woman and the only other Asian American on the stage — was the one who took him down.
Wealthy tech-bros posing as populists are as bad as wealthy real estate moguls (who actually became most successful as reality TV stars and sellers of their brand) pretending to be the champion of average Americans against "elites."
Trump, Elon, Vivek. All examples of this.
I tried to watch. I really did. It is what responsible civic minded citizens should do. I couldn’t make it past the 3 minute mark. Then again, I don’t watch reruns of 2017 sun belt conference volleyball games at midnight on channel 246. Similar in importance.
I’m still reeling from Pence saying consensus is the opposite of leadership! I kind of thought that was how democracy was supposed to work. Wtf?
| Vivek is a facile, clownish, shallow, shameless, pandering demagogue, but he is exactly
| what GOP voters crave these days.
Sometimes semantics are conclusive. 'But' is the wrong conjunction. 'So' is apt.
You're thinking like a pre-Trump ur-Republican. MAGA has nothing to do with thinking.
For me, assholes with racist tendencies may be more significantly differentiated from racists with asshole tendencies are for you, Pre-Trump Republicans had their problems, but G W Bush and D J Trump are not the same political species, maybe not even the same genus.
Christie may be a bridge between pre and post, but Hutchison is purely pre, and Ramaswamy decidedly post.
For you addition. For me matrix multiplication (not commutative in general). A question of what's the goal and what's the side-effects.
Many pre-Trump Republicans have left the GOP.
The Trumpified GOP -- as MAGAs like to boast -- attracted many people who had formerly not identified or voted Republican -- or voted at all.
MAGAs crow that they killed off the old GOP and built a MAGA GOP.
Many of the politicians are just afraid of angering the Trumpified GOP base.